Our View: More headlines we hope to see in 2014

Thursday

Jan 2, 2014 at 3:37 PMJan 2, 2014 at 3:37 PM

The Journal-Standard publishes six days a week, 52 weeks a year. We normally have at least three headlines on the front page so that makes 936 potential front-page headlines. That gives us a lot of possibilities on what we could see in 2014, but the Editorial Board decided to limit its wish list to 10. Here's the second five. The first five appeared Thursday.

6. School District reaches Top 15 percent in Illinois as budget balances; graduation rates among highest in the state:

Anything is possible, but this is a stretch, given the hard truths faced by the Freeport public schools. Student achievement, as measured by the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, lags the statewide average. (In 2013, just 43 percent of Freeport public schools students met or exceeded state standards on the ISAT, compared with 59 percent statewide.) So, too, the district trails the state in student academic growth - a measure of improvement arrived at by comparing students' achievement from one year to the next - college readiness and high school graduation rate. At least some of the achievement gap is attributable to the large proportion of low-income students served by the district - 70.2 percent, according to the Illinois State Board of Education. Poverty isn't going to go away anytime soon.

On the fiscal front, the School Board last month approved the district's first deficit budget in a decade. Reserve funds will cover the gap between income and expenses. Given the continuing reduction in state aid, however, it's likely that the district will continue to battle serious budget challenges for the foreseeable future.

7. Illinois announces balanced budget: Shouting "Miracles do happen," Gov. Pat Quinn led fellow Democrats in the Legislature, celebrating the passage of Illinois' first balanced budget passed without resorting to tricks such as "lapsed period spending" to make an unbalanced budget seem balanced. The state constitution requires a balanced budget, but for decades, lawmakers have used accounting tricks to run a deficit while making the budget appear to pass constitutional muster.

"We were able to do this by working together to reduce spending, after we came to the realization that to make Illinois competitive with other states around us, we had to get serious about fiscal responsibility," said Quinn. And at that moment up in heaven, a Republican angel got his wings.

8. Pension reform survives court challenge: The Illinois Supreme Court has ruled 4-3 that the state's pension reform act of 2013 is constitutional because adjusting the increase in pension benefits does not actually reduce them.

State teachers unions had brought suit against the new law, arguing that it was unconstitutional.

However, despite the court's ruling, teacher unions vowed to fight on - in the streets. "This means strike," said Rainey Day, leader of the Illinois Amalgamation of Teachers, Teamsters and Signal Crossing Guards, as she helped fellow unionists set up picket lines in front of the Chicago Board of Education, 125 S. Clark St.

"We're shutting down schools around the state for the 2014-2015 school year, and then we'll think about coming back, maybe," Day said.

9. Fair Map Amendment put on ballot: We've editorialized previously in support of an amendment to the state constitution that would establish a transparent system of drawing legislative districts. The first step is to get the amendment on the November ballot, an effort being led by an organization called Yes for Independent Maps. The group aims to gather 500,000 signatures on petitions by the end of April to secure a place on the fall ballot.

With polls showing that Illinoisan in large numbers have lost faith in state government, the time is ripe for redistricting reform that would overturn the current system of drawing legislative maps in which politicians in essence guarantee their re-election by selecting their voters, not the other way around.

10. Pope welcomes divorced, remarried faithful to Communion: Pope Francis has spoken eloquently of the general need for mercy to be the calling card of the church in the world. To that end, he has signaled that church law concerning annulments and the eligibility of divorced and remarried Catholics will be among the topics of discussion next fall during a synod of bishops centered on pastoral care of families.

That's a big issue for millions of divorced Catholics around the world and for thousands right here in the Rock River Valley who live with the tension that results when a second marriage, which ought to be a source of joy, runs into church teaching that forbids, officially at least, civilly remarried Catholics from receiving the Eucharist.

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